After incorporating several expert suggestions in the redrafting, the Union Health Ministry has finally sent the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill to the Union Law Ministry for vetting. The Bill is expected to find its way to the Union cabinet soon for its approval once it gets the Law Ministry's nod.

The Bill is being introduced to regulate thousands of infertility clinics that have mushroomed in the country over the past several years. The Bill will define the establishment and functioning of these clinics.

Senior Health Ministry officials confirmed that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has finalised the redrafting of the Bill and the ministry has sent the Bill to the law ministry for its opinion. After getting the approval from the Union cabinet, the Bill be introduced in Parliament for final seal of approval before implementing it in the country.

Sources said that the ministry had incorporated several changes in the final draft as it had received a large number of suggestions and comments from foreign countries, embassies, legal institutions, international institutions, experts and others on the draft bill. The government had late last year published the draft bill and had invited suggestions and comments from the public on the proposed bill. The Bill, drafted by an 11-member expert committee appointed by the health ministry, proposes to establish a National Advisory Board and state Boards to regulate and supervise the establishment and functioning of the infertility clinics in the country.

The bill, once it gets the Parliament nod, will provide for a national framework for the regulation and supervision of assisted reproductive technology (better known as infertility clinics) and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Apart from putting strict parameters for the establishment of an infertility clinic, the Bill also defines the minimum requirement regarding staff in an infertility clinic and minimal physical requirements for a clinic.

The government felt the need for a Bill regulating the infertility clinics in the wake of mushrooming of infertility clinics in the country since the early 80s. In the Indian context where barrenness is looked down upon, infertile patients look up to ART as the last resort to parenthood. Many of these technologies require enormous technical expertise and infrastructure.

But, in the absence of a regulation, many of these clinics do not have adequate trained manpower and infrastructure facilities to deliver these highly sophisticated technologies and even services provided by some of these clinics are highly questionable. In some cases, the infertile couple are being cheated by providing relatively simple procedure and charged for complicated and expensive procedures. By enacting a Bill, the government wanted to control these violations.